Ó Cuív went too far with his attempt to banish English names. How does doing that help the Irish language? It’s an attack on the cultural history of the Gaeltacht to try and make people pretend its English placenames don’t exist.

Oilibhear Chromaill

There were several flaws, to my mind fatal flaws, with the An Daingean plebiscite.
1. It only pertains to the town of An Daingean – the people from the town’s hinterland were excluded from the ballot even though they could be said to have an interest in the name of their main town.

2. Only the ratepayers were allowed – thus excluding many people who would be entitled to vote in an election and giving an unwarranted and undemocratic advantage to the town’s business community who have been pushing this vote for their own narrow ‘touristic’ reasons. (They’re afraid that tourists heading for An Daingean will end up in Daingean in County Offaly, thus depriving the west Kerry town of ‘easy marks’ for rip off republic type behaviour.

3. The most extraordinary aspect of the plebiscite was the requirelment of voters to sign their ballot paper. As the votes were counted in a local An Daingean hotel, and taken in tandem with reports of intimidation of voters by the yes camp, this is an unprecedented departure from the secrecy of the ballot.

4. As I’ve pointed out before, the name of Daingean Uí Chúis is misspelt on the ballot paper.

5. The proposal made by Kerry County Council is for the one remedy which the Minister isn’t empowered to provide. Given that this legislation passed in the Dáil and Seanad without demur, it’s not unreasonable to surmise that it has universal support.

6. If there’s an attempt to force the issue by the Dinglesbodies, and their chorus of supporters in the English language media, ignorant as they are, then fair enough. Let’s go for it. Let’s have an amendment of Article 8 of the Constitution to give Irish reduced status in comparison to English.

7 I’m a language democrat and I will abide by the will of the people, all the people,not a minority of 1,000 deluded souls in Kerry.

Not really a blow for anyone … it was hardly a surprise and I don’t see how it changes anything.

Oilibhear Chromaill

How nice of you to join us, Willowfield. If this was a blow against anyone or anything, it was against democracy and its supporters. But then again, I don’t expect you to understand what I’m talking about.

Yokel

Yet again I ask the question, how many of the people who have posted on this thread come from the North and how many from the South?

Thanks in advance

Oilibhear Chromaill

I haven’t seen you ask the question but even if I had I would have questioned its relevance. The issue is regarding the Irish language and anyone on the island of Ireland has a say on this….indeed the worldwide Irish language community shouldn’t be excluded from it either.